Technical Field
The following disclosure relates to an image recording apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In ink-jet image recording apparatuses, the viscosity of ink in nozzles of an ink-jet head increases due to drying of the ink during a period in which the ink is not ejected from the nozzles. When printing is started in this state by ejecting the ink from the nozzles onto a recording medium, increase in viscosity of the ink may cause ejection failure in the nozzles, which may result in fading on a printed image. To solve this problem, a conventional image recording apparatus controls an ink-jet head to perform flushing for forcing ink from nozzles to discharge high-viscosity ink from the nozzles during a period in which a recording medium is supplied to the ink-jet head after a print instruction is input.
In such an image recording apparatus, however, a length of time required for supply of the recording medium may be unexpectedly increased due to a slip of a roller for supplying the recording medium to the ink-jet head, for example. In this case, the flushing is finished early although the recording medium has not been supplied. That is, a certain length of time passes from the end of the flushing to the start of printing on the recording medium, during which the viscosity of the ink in the nozzles increases.
To solve this problem, there is known an image recording apparatus configured to discharge ink in flushing after recognizing that a recording medium has been supplied successfully. Specifically, a sheet detector is provided near an end of a path through which a recording sheet (the recording medium) is supplied to the ink-jet head by a sheet-supply roller, and this sheet detector detects the recording sheet supplied along the path. After the detection of the recording sheet by the sheet detector and the recognition of the success of the sheet supply, the image recording apparatus controls the ink-jet head to perform the flushing to discharge the ink whose viscosity has been increased in nozzles.